COMMUNITY FORUM

REMODEL??

WE ARE CONSIDERING ADDING A MASTER SUITE TO OUR PRESENT HOME. CAN YOU GIVE ME AN IDEA HOW MUCH AN ARCHITECT WOULD CHARGE.I REALISE THIS MITE VARY BUT I AM LOOKING FOR A BALL PARK FIGURE.THANKS

Kansaz

11:32PM | 04/14/99

Unless you have money to burn and don't have a builder you can trust, hire the Builder first and have him hire the Architect. This relationship is almost always more economical for the typical Homeowner. The main reason is that no-one can tell you what it will cost but the person whom you will pay to do the work. This relationship allows the builder to put periodic reality checks on the design. The Architect can give you ball-park cost estimates but Builders always jack up their bids if they are not pretty sure that they will get the job. It takes a lot of time for a builder to tally up a bid on a project and they feel like if they may not get the bid they may as well roll the dice by adding several hundred dollars profit. If you bite they are ahead. If you don't then they will get the next one or the next one after that. If you get good recommendations on a Builder and hire him based on trust you are much more likely to get what you want for a reasonable price.